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Messages - turmite

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21
Hello Mauri,

At this point, anything helps!  ;D

Seriously though, I hired to guys, father and son team to come do this for me and when the son showed me the little circuit board he was intending to use I told him there was not enough room to put all the parts needed and he informed me that he knew what he was doing. So, I shut up! They were only coming once a week for one day and sometimes would miss a couple of weeks, but it was not costing me very much, and at this time in my life that was important. The got the machine to where we could command it and it would move correctly, and I was told one more trip and they would have it usable. When they came back and started working, I heard the son say to the father, "there isn't enough room for me to get everything on the board"! They left for the day and have never come back, will not return my phone calls (the son) and refused to let me have any notes or schematics!

I have had two other people who was suppose to come out and they have never showed, so I decided to do it myself! I graduated the Air Force electronics school but it was a very long time ago! I absolutely understand the safety concerns you have and am ever vigilant to adhere to sound safety practices!


I have downloaded all the manuals I can find, and if there is more not on the site, let me know.
I was just in phone contact with Marc and Rufi just before I got the email alerting me to your post so I am going pretty close to your suggestions!

Everything that will be used with the Hicon other than input power is 24 vdc and 9 vdc.

I guess I wasn't too clear on the E-Stop question. I am not talking about the red E-Stop buttons, but rather three separate safety circuits all tied to one input to stop the machine in case any one of the three were triggered. Rufi just told me that I really needed each of those circuits on a separate input pin so I could know where the trouble lay in case of a trigger.

Mauri do you know of anyone who really knows schematics and possibly theory?

Thanks again for your help!

Mike

22
Hi all,

My name is Mike Turner, a long time member but just now getting back into cnc work. Shut my business down to care for my wife who was battling cancer and she lost that battle in Feb of 2011. Took some time off but now trying to start the business up again with better equipment. Bought a used Onsrud router, moved it to my shop and the controller died on me.

I have been battling this retrofit for two years and I need some help to get this finished.

1. I need an electronics guru specializing in cnc that can me with a couple of schematic problems.

2. I have several questions about Mach4 and it's intregration with Vital Systems Hicon Integra controller!


Mach questions to get started.

1.  I know from having used Mach3 for many years that you can use all the limits wired in series on a single pin and that saves some input spots. Can you do the same with       homing sensors and then home the machine one axis at a time, or maybe some other sequence. I will always want to home the Z axis first!!!!

2. When using the Hicon controller to control the spindle, is Mach still involved in the process, i.e. setting speeds, changing tools etc

3. Hypothetical question.......would it be possible to use 3 separate safety circuits all wired in series but not connected on the single E-Stop pin? This would include overtravel limits, edge switches on the tables, both front and rear, and vacuum loss? Would any one of the circuits being tripped constitute an E-Stop situation?

23
Scott pm me since that will send me an email.

Mike

24
Scott what kind of hands do you need? Surgical or thumbs as all the digits?  ;D Specifically what are you needing done?
How many days.......since I don't live close to Knoxville but need to make a trip to South Carolina within 2-3 weeks, and could expedite the trip if necessary. I am good with my hands, have a working knowledge of Mach but need some deeper understanding. Like right now, I cannot for the life of me get my a axis reference switch to be recognized by Mach.

In addition, I have a personal reason to want to come to Knoxville.......something about my "brain"!

Mike Turner

Madcam demonstrator at the Mach Knoxville meet several yrs ago! It now has full 5 axis continuous capability

25
Hood, I realized that the bob is seeing it because the wires are direct into the axis limit pins. So, the cable from the ess to the board does sound suspect. I did however move the wire to the digitize pin, and changed the pin number from 13 to 15 and I now get the same thing I do with the previous wiring location and pin 13. It worked fine hooked to the x axis location.

Did you see anything in the xml that would indicate I have something ticked wrong? I am now running the reference switch normally open and have my pin set to active hi.

hmmmm I just thought of something. When I moved the wires to the x axis pin, I also had a negative limit set. That is what tripped and gave me my alert. I have much more testing this afternoon.

Thank you for you help and if you can think of anything, post it as my phone will alert me at the shop.

Mike

26
Well I am not using a parallel cable. Using the Ethernet Smooth Stepper. For the time being, I am going to take my digitize pin and use it for my a axis. That will at least get me running this afternoon.

Hood, I cannot thank you enough for your help. Sometimes when you have looked at a problem long enough, you see nothing!

Mike

27
Ok can you try something, put your Z switches wire into pin 13 on your BOB and your A in on pin 11 and see what happens.
Hood

Hood, I just swapped the wires and the a axis now works great. I have my x and z wired together and neither of them worked, so it is now narrowed. Question is, is it the bob, or the connectors on the bob, or pin allocation within Mach?

Mike

28
Attach your xml and I will take a look and see if anything is amiss there.
Also if you go to diagnostics page and then manually trigger the A switch do you see the A home LED light up or go out or not do anything (stay out)

Hood

Hood, I just checked the diagnostic page led while jogging the a axis, and the led does not go off if lit, nor does it come on if off. The led on my break out board does show the switch being activated whether set high or low in Mach and whether it is hooked up normally open or normally closed. I have checked the switch with a meter while working it and it does work.

Thank you for your help.

Mike

29
there is always that except isn't there? I was finally forced to move to Mach3 and am now using an Ethernet SmoothStepper. This has been a saga of failure upon failure and I won't go into them except the one.

I have my 4th axis set up as angular and motor tuned with correct units per to get a correct 360 rotation with mdi  !!! My problem is I cannot get Mach to recognize my reference switch set as a home only, or even if I set it as a limit. I have tried the switch as hi and lo, the switch as nc and no. The bob led blinks as the switch is activated when the shaft moves by it, but that is all. Is does not stop to reference nor does it stop if I set the switch as a limit switch.

I am homing/reffing in the negative and have to move a touch in the negative to get off the switch. I have not thought to home in the positive. Would that help me with this?

Mike

30
Jamie, send me your email via pm.

Mike

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